Probe Into Lower Burrell Officer’s Shooting Death Continues

“Please pray for the Kotecki family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. I know I’m devastated by this. Derek was a great, great police officer and he will be sadly missed by our community, by all of our department.” -- said Chief Tracy Lindo, of the Lower Burrell Police Department

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

LOWER BURRELL (KDKA) — Investigators continue to look at the fatal shooting of a local police officer.

Sources close to the investigation say questions have to be answered about response, procedure and training regarding this incident.

Not lost in the effort to produce t-shirts to honor Officer Derek Kotecki and to help his family – a real concern about violence and what is being described as an ambush of the Lower Burrell officer.

The shooting happened last Wednesday night. Investigators say Charles Post waited in the backseat of a car and shot Officer Kotecki three times through the back window.

The incident has all departments examining procedure.

“It’s not a criticism at any way about what happened to Lower Burrell because I wasn’t there and I may have done the exact same thing in the same situation – it’s not a criticism – but each time you have to evaluate if something goes wrong, how can you do it and maybe next time no one will get hurt,” Chief Monaco said.

There have been questions raised about procedure, why a SWAT team wasn’t called in, why Kotecki approached the car, was he told Post was in the car?

The Lower Burrell Police Chief cannot talk about the shooting investigation but is convinced procedure was followed.

Marty Griffin returned to KDKA-TV as an Investigative Reporter in April of 2003.
Marty has been carrying the torch for consumers for several years. He brings his experience back to the Pittsburgh area where he was a well known investigative...